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  <div class="section" id="errors-and-exceptions">
<span id="tut-errors"></span><h1>8. Errors and Exceptions<a class="headerlink" href="#errors-and-exceptions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>Until now error messages haven&#8217;t been more than mentioned, but if you have tried
out the examples you have probably seen some.  There are (at least) two
distinguishable kinds of errors: <em>syntax errors</em> and <em>exceptions</em>.</p>
<div class="section" id="syntax-errors">
<span id="tut-syntaxerrors"></span><h2>8.1. Syntax Errors<a class="headerlink" href="#syntax-errors" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Syntax errors, also known as parsing errors, are perhaps the most common kind of
complaint you get while you are still learning Python:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">while</span> <span class="bp">True</span> <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&#39;Hello world&#39;</span>
<span class="go">  File &quot;&lt;stdin&gt;&quot;, line 1, in ?</span>
<span class="go">    while True print &#39;Hello world&#39;</span>
<span class="go">                   ^</span>
<span class="go">SyntaxError: invalid syntax</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The parser repeats the offending line and displays a little &#8216;arrow&#8217; pointing at
the earliest point in the line where the error was detected.  The error is
caused by (or at least detected at) the token <em>preceding</em> the arrow: in the
example, the error is detected at the keyword <a class="reference external" href="../reference/simple_stmts.html#print"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">print</span></tt></a>, since a colon
(<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">':'</span></tt>) is missing before it.  File name and line number are printed so you
know where to look in case the input came from a script.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="exceptions">
<span id="tut-exceptions"></span><h2>8.2. Exceptions<a class="headerlink" href="#exceptions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Even if a statement or expression is syntactically correct, it may cause an
error when an attempt is made to execute it. Errors detected during execution
are called <em>exceptions</em> and are not unconditionally fatal: you will soon learn
how to handle them in Python programs.  Most exceptions are not handled by
programs, however, and result in error messages as shown here:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="mf">10</span> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="mf">1</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="mf">0</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span>
  File <span class="nb">&quot;&lt;stdin&gt;&quot;</span>, line <span class="m">1</span>, in <span class="n-Identifier">?</span>
<span class="nc">ZeroDivisionError</span>: <span class="n-Identifier">integer division or modulo by zero</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="mf">4</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="n">spam</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="mf">3</span>
<span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span>
  File <span class="nb">&quot;&lt;stdin&gt;&quot;</span>, line <span class="m">1</span>, in <span class="n-Identifier">?</span>
<span class="nc">NameError</span>: <span class="n-Identifier">name &#39;spam&#39; is not defined</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="s">&#39;2&#39;</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="mf">2</span>
<span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span>
  File <span class="nb">&quot;&lt;stdin&gt;&quot;</span>, line <span class="m">1</span>, in <span class="n-Identifier">?</span>
<span class="nc">TypeError</span>: <span class="n-Identifier">cannot concatenate &#39;str&#39; and &#39;int&#39; objects</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The last line of the error message indicates what happened. Exceptions come in
different types, and the type is printed as part of the message: the types in
the example are <a title="exceptions.ZeroDivisionError" class="reference external" href="../library/exceptions.html#exceptions.ZeroDivisionError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">ZeroDivisionError</span></tt></a>, <a title="exceptions.NameError" class="reference external" href="../library/exceptions.html#exceptions.NameError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">NameError</span></tt></a> and <a title="exceptions.TypeError" class="reference external" href="../library/exceptions.html#exceptions.TypeError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></tt></a>.
The string printed as the exception type is the name of the built-in exception
that occurred.  This is true for all built-in exceptions, but need not be true
for user-defined exceptions (although it is a useful convention). Standard
exception names are built-in identifiers (not reserved keywords).</p>
<p>The rest of the line provides detail based on the type of exception and what
caused it.</p>
<p>The preceding part of the error message shows the context where the exception
happened, in the form of a stack traceback. In general it contains a stack
traceback listing source lines; however, it will not display lines read from
standard input.</p>
<p><a class="reference external" href="../library/exceptions.html#bltin-exceptions"><em>Built-in Exceptions</em></a> lists the built-in exceptions and their meanings.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="handling-exceptions">
<span id="tut-handling"></span><h2>8.3. Handling Exceptions<a class="headerlink" href="#handling-exceptions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>It is possible to write programs that handle selected exceptions. Look at the
following example, which asks the user for input until a valid integer has been
entered, but allows the user to interrupt the program (using <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Control-C</span></tt> or
whatever the operating system supports); note that a user-generated interruption
is signalled by raising the <a title="exceptions.KeyboardInterrupt" class="reference external" href="../library/exceptions.html#exceptions.KeyboardInterrupt"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">KeyboardInterrupt</span></tt></a> exception.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">while</span> <span class="bp">True</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>        <span class="n">x</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">int</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">raw_input</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;Please enter a number: &quot;</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>        <span class="k">break</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">except</span> <span class="ne">ValueError</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>        <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&quot;Oops!  That was no valid number.  Try again...&quot;</span>
<span class="gp">...</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#try"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">try</span></tt></a> statement works as follows.</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>First, the <em>try clause</em> (the statement(s) between the <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#try"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">try</span></tt></a> and
<a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#except"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">except</span></tt></a> keywords) is executed.</li>
<li>If no exception occurs, the <em>except clause</em> is skipped and execution of the
<a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#try"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">try</span></tt></a> statement is finished.</li>
<li>If an exception occurs during execution of the try clause, the rest of the
clause is skipped.  Then if its type matches the exception named after the
<a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#except"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">except</span></tt></a> keyword, the except clause is executed, and then execution
continues after the <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#try"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">try</span></tt></a> statement.</li>
<li>If an exception occurs which does not match the exception named in the except
clause, it is passed on to outer <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#try"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">try</span></tt></a> statements; if no handler is
found, it is an <em>unhandled exception</em> and execution stops with a message as
shown above.</li>
</ul>
<p>A <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#try"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">try</span></tt></a> statement may have more than one except clause, to specify
handlers for different exceptions.  At most one handler will be executed.
Handlers only handle exceptions that occur in the corresponding try clause, not
in other handlers of the same <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#try"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">try</span></tt></a> statement.  An except clause may
name multiple exceptions as a parenthesized tuple, for example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="o">...</span> <span class="k">except</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="ne">RuntimeError</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ne">TypeError</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ne">NameError</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="o">...</span>     <span class="k">pass</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The last except clause may omit the exception name(s), to serve as a wildcard.
Use this with extreme caution, since it is easy to mask a real programming error
in this way!  It can also be used to print an error message and then re-raise
the exception (allowing a caller to handle the exception as well):</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><pre>import sys

try:
    f = open('myfile.txt')
    s = f.readline()
    i = int(s.strip())
except IOError as (errno, strerror):
    print "I/O error({0}): {1}".format(errno, strerror)
except ValueError:
    print "Could not convert data to an integer."
except:
    print "Unexpected error:", sys.exc_info()[0]
    raise</pre>
</div>
<p>The <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#try"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">try</span></tt></a> ... <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#except"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">except</span></tt></a> statement has an optional <em>else
clause</em>, which, when present, must follow all except clauses.  It is useful for
code that must be executed if the try clause does not raise an exception.  For
example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">arg</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">sys</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">argv</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mf">1</span><span class="p">:]:</span>
    <span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
        <span class="n">f</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">arg</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;r&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
    <span class="k">except</span> <span class="ne">IOError</span><span class="p">:</span>
        <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&#39;cannot open&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">arg</span>
    <span class="k">else</span><span class="p">:</span>
        <span class="k">print</span> <span class="n">arg</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;has&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nb">len</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">f</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">readlines</span><span class="p">()),</span> <span class="s">&#39;lines&#39;</span>
        <span class="n">f</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">close</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The use of the <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#else"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">else</span></tt></a> clause is better than adding additional code to
the <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#try"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">try</span></tt></a> clause because it avoids accidentally catching an exception
that wasn&#8217;t raised by the code being protected by the <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#try"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">try</span></tt></a> ...
<a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#except"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">except</span></tt></a> statement.</p>
<p>When an exception occurs, it may have an associated value, also known as the
exception&#8217;s <em>argument</em>. The presence and type of the argument depend on the
exception type.</p>
<p>The except clause may specify a variable after the exception name (or tuple).
The variable is bound to an exception instance with the arguments stored in
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">instance.args</span></tt>.  For convenience, the exception instance defines
<a title="object.__getitem__" class="reference external" href="../reference/datamodel.html#object.__getitem__"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">__getitem__()</span></tt></a> and <a title="object.__str__" class="reference external" href="../reference/datamodel.html#object.__str__"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">__str__()</span></tt></a> so the arguments can be accessed or
printed directly without having to reference <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.args</span></tt>.</p>
<p>But use of <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.args</span></tt> is discouraged.  Instead, the preferred use is to pass a
single argument to an exception (which can be a tuple if multiple arguments are
needed) and have it bound to the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">message</span></tt> attribute.  One may also
instantiate an exception first before raising it and add any attributes to it as
desired.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>   <span class="k">raise</span> <span class="ne">Exception</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;spam&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;eggs&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="k">except</span> <span class="ne">Exception</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">inst</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>   <span class="k">print</span> <span class="nb">type</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">inst</span><span class="p">)</span>     <span class="c"># the exception instance</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>   <span class="k">print</span> <span class="n">inst</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">args</span>      <span class="c"># arguments stored in .args</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>   <span class="k">print</span> <span class="n">inst</span>           <span class="c"># __str__ allows args to printed directly</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>   <span class="n">x</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">inst</span>          <span class="c"># __getitem__ allows args to be unpacked directly</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>   <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&#39;x =&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">x</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>   <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&#39;y =&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y</span>
<span class="gp">...</span>
<span class="go">&lt;type &#39;exceptions.Exception&#39;&gt;</span>
<span class="go">(&#39;spam&#39;, &#39;eggs&#39;)</span>
<span class="go">(&#39;spam&#39;, &#39;eggs&#39;)</span>
<span class="go">x = spam</span>
<span class="go">y = eggs</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>If an exception has an argument, it is printed as the last part (&#8216;detail&#8217;) of
the message for unhandled exceptions.</p>
<p>Exception handlers don&#8217;t just handle exceptions if they occur immediately in the
try clause, but also if they occur inside functions that are called (even
indirectly) in the try clause. For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">this_fails</span><span class="p">():</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="n">x</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mf">1</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="mf">0</span>
<span class="gp">...</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="n">this_fails</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="k">except</span> <span class="ne">ZeroDivisionError</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">detail</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&#39;Handling run-time error:&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">detail</span>
<span class="gp">...</span>
<span class="go">Handling run-time error: integer division or modulo by zero</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="raising-exceptions">
<span id="tut-raising"></span><h2>8.4. Raising Exceptions<a class="headerlink" href="#raising-exceptions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The <a class="reference external" href="../reference/simple_stmts.html#raise"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">raise</span></tt></a> statement allows the programmer to force a specified
exception to occur. For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">raise</span> <span class="ne">NameError</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;HiThere&#39;</span>
<span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span>
  File <span class="nb">&quot;&lt;stdin&gt;&quot;</span>, line <span class="m">1</span>, in <span class="n-Identifier">?</span>
<span class="nc">NameError</span>: <span class="n-Identifier">HiThere</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The first argument to <a class="reference external" href="../reference/simple_stmts.html#raise"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">raise</span></tt></a> names the exception to be raised.  The
optional second argument specifies the exception&#8217;s argument.  Alternatively, the
above could be written as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">raise</span> <span class="pre">NameError('HiThere')</span></tt>.  Either form works
fine, but there seems to be a growing stylistic preference for the latter.</p>
<p>If you need to determine whether an exception was raised but don&#8217;t intend to
handle it, a simpler form of the <a class="reference external" href="../reference/simple_stmts.html#raise"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">raise</span></tt></a> statement allows you to
re-raise the exception:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">raise</span> <span class="ne">NameError</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;HiThere&#39;</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="k">except</span> <span class="ne">NameError</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&#39;An exception flew by!&#39;</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">raise</span>
<span class="gp">...</span>
<span class="go">An exception flew by!</span>
<span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span>
  File <span class="nb">&quot;&lt;stdin&gt;&quot;</span>, line <span class="m">2</span>, in <span class="n-Identifier">?</span>
<span class="nc">NameError</span>: <span class="n-Identifier">HiThere</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="user-defined-exceptions">
<span id="tut-userexceptions"></span><h2>8.5. User-defined Exceptions<a class="headerlink" href="#user-defined-exceptions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Programs may name their own exceptions by creating a new exception class.
Exceptions should typically be derived from the <a title="exceptions.Exception" class="reference external" href="../library/exceptions.html#exceptions.Exception"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Exception</span></tt></a> class, either
directly or indirectly.  For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">MyError</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="ne">Exception</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">__init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">value</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>        <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">value</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">value</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">__str__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>        <span class="k">return</span> <span class="nb">repr</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">value</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">...</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">raise</span> <span class="n">MyError</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mf">2</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="mf">2</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="k">except</span> <span class="n">MyError</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">e</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&#39;My exception occurred, value:&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">e</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">value</span>
<span class="gp">...</span>
<span class="go">My exception occurred, value: 4</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">raise</span> <span class="n">MyError</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;oops!&#39;</span>
<span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span>
  File <span class="nb">&quot;&lt;stdin&gt;&quot;</span>, line <span class="m">1</span>, in <span class="n-Identifier">?</span>
<span class="nc">__main__.MyError</span>: <span class="n-Identifier">&#39;oops!&#39;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>In this example, the default <a title="object.__init__" class="reference external" href="../reference/datamodel.html#object.__init__"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">__init__()</span></tt></a> of <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Exception</span></tt> has been
overridden.  The new behavior simply creates the <em>value</em> attribute.  This
replaces the default behavior of creating the <em>args</em> attribute.</p>
<p>Exception classes can be defined which do anything any other class can do, but
are usually kept simple, often only offering a number of attributes that allow
information about the error to be extracted by handlers for the exception.  When
creating a module that can raise several distinct errors, a common practice is
to create a base class for exceptions defined by that module, and subclass that
to create specific exception classes for different error conditions:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Error</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="ne">Exception</span><span class="p">):</span>
    <span class="sd">&quot;&quot;&quot;Base class for exceptions in this module.&quot;&quot;&quot;</span>
    <span class="k">pass</span>

<span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">InputError</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Error</span><span class="p">):</span>
    <span class="sd">&quot;&quot;&quot;Exception raised for errors in the input.</span>

<span class="sd">    Attributes:</span>
<span class="sd">        expression -- input expression in which the error occurred</span>
<span class="sd">        message -- explanation of the error</span>
<span class="sd">    &quot;&quot;&quot;</span>

    <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">__init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">expression</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">message</span><span class="p">):</span>
        <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">expression</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">expression</span>
        <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">message</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">message</span>

<span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">TransitionError</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Error</span><span class="p">):</span>
    <span class="sd">&quot;&quot;&quot;Raised when an operation attempts a state transition that&#39;s not</span>
<span class="sd">    allowed.</span>

<span class="sd">    Attributes:</span>
<span class="sd">        previous -- state at beginning of transition</span>
<span class="sd">        next -- attempted new state</span>
<span class="sd">        message -- explanation of why the specific transition is not allowed</span>
<span class="sd">    &quot;&quot;&quot;</span>

    <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">__init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">previous</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">next</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">message</span><span class="p">):</span>
        <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">previous</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">previous</span>
        <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">next</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">next</span>
        <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">message</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">message</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Most exceptions are defined with names that end in &#8220;Error,&#8221; similar to the
naming of the standard exceptions.</p>
<p>Many standard modules define their own exceptions to report errors that may
occur in functions they define.  More information on classes is presented in
chapter <a class="reference external" href="classes.html#tut-classes"><em>Classes</em></a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="defining-clean-up-actions">
<span id="tut-cleanup"></span><h2>8.6. Defining Clean-up Actions<a class="headerlink" href="#defining-clean-up-actions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#try"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">try</span></tt></a> statement has another optional clause which is intended to
define clean-up actions that must be executed under all circumstances.  For
example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">raise</span> <span class="ne">KeyboardInterrupt</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="k">finally</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&#39;Goodbye, world!&#39;</span>
<span class="gp">...</span>
<span class="go">Goodbye, world!</span>
<span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span>
  File <span class="nb">&quot;&lt;stdin&gt;&quot;</span>, line <span class="m">2</span>, in <span class="n-Identifier">?</span>
<span class="nc">KeyboardInterrupt</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>A <em>finally clause</em> is always executed before leaving the <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#try"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">try</span></tt></a>
statement, whether an exception has occurred or not. When an exception has
occurred in the <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#try"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">try</span></tt></a> clause and has not been handled by an
<a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#except"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">except</span></tt></a> clause (or it has occurred in a <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#except"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">except</span></tt></a> or
<a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#else"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">else</span></tt></a> clause), it is re-raised after the <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#finally"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">finally</span></tt></a> clause has
been executed.  The <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#finally"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">finally</span></tt></a> clause is also executed &#8220;on the way out&#8221;
when any other clause of the <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#try"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">try</span></tt></a> statement is left via a
<a class="reference external" href="../reference/simple_stmts.html#break"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">break</span></tt></a>, <a class="reference external" href="../reference/simple_stmts.html#continue"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">continue</span></tt></a> or <a class="reference external" href="../reference/simple_stmts.html#return"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">return</span></tt></a> statement.  A more
complicated example (having <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#except"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">except</span></tt></a> and <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#finally"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">finally</span></tt></a> clauses in
the same <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#try"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">try</span></tt></a> statement works as of Python 2.5):</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">divide</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>        <span class="n">result</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">x</span> <span class="o">/</span> <span class="n">y</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">except</span> <span class="ne">ZeroDivisionError</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>        <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&quot;division by zero!&quot;</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">else</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>        <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&quot;result is&quot;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">result</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="k">finally</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>        <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&quot;executing finally clause&quot;</span>
<span class="gp">...</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">divide</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mf">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">result is 2</span>
<span class="go">executing finally clause</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">divide</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mf">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">0</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">division by zero!</span>
<span class="go">executing finally clause</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">divide</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;2&quot;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&quot;1&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">executing finally clause</span>
<span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span>
  File <span class="nb">&quot;&lt;stdin&gt;&quot;</span>, line <span class="m">1</span>, in <span class="n-Identifier">?</span>
  File <span class="nb">&quot;&lt;stdin&gt;&quot;</span>, line <span class="m">3</span>, in <span class="n-Identifier">divide</span>
<span class="nc">TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for /</span>: <span class="n-Identifier">&#39;str&#39; and &#39;str&#39;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>As you can see, the <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#finally"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">finally</span></tt></a> clause is executed in any event.  The
<a title="exceptions.TypeError" class="reference external" href="../library/exceptions.html#exceptions.TypeError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></tt></a> raised by dividing two strings is not handled by the
<a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#except"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">except</span></tt></a> clause and therefore re-raised after the <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#finally"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">finally</span></tt></a>
clause has been executed.</p>
<p>In real world applications, the <a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#finally"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">finally</span></tt></a> clause is useful for
releasing external resources (such as files or network connections), regardless
of whether the use of the resource was successful.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="predefined-clean-up-actions">
<span id="tut-cleanup-with"></span><h2>8.7. Predefined Clean-up Actions<a class="headerlink" href="#predefined-clean-up-actions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Some objects define standard clean-up actions to be undertaken when the object
is no longer needed, regardless of whether or not the operation using the object
succeeded or failed. Look at the following example, which tries to open a file
and print its contents to the screen.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">line</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;myfile.txt&quot;</span><span class="p">):</span>
    <span class="k">print</span> <span class="n">line</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The problem with this code is that it leaves the file open for an indeterminate
amount of time after the code has finished executing. This is not an issue in
simple scripts, but can be a problem for larger applications. The
<a class="reference external" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#with"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">with</span></tt></a> statement allows objects like files to be used in a way that
ensures they are always cleaned up promptly and correctly.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">with</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;myfile.txt&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="p">:</span>
    <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">line</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="p">:</span>
        <span class="k">print</span> <span class="n">line</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>After the statement is executed, the file <em>f</em> is always closed, even if a
problem was encountered while processing the lines. Other objects which provide
predefined clean-up actions will indicate this in their documentation.</p>
</div>
</div>


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            <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3>
            <ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="">8. Errors and Exceptions</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#syntax-errors">8.1. Syntax Errors</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#exceptions">8.2. Exceptions</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#handling-exceptions">8.3. Handling Exceptions</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#raising-exceptions">8.4. Raising Exceptions</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#user-defined-exceptions">8.5. User-defined Exceptions</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#defining-clean-up-actions">8.6. Defining Clean-up Actions</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#predefined-clean-up-actions">8.7. Predefined Clean-up Actions</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

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